IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH 249 Avtar Chand and v. CRM-M-59873-2024 Decided on : 07.01.2025
Case Details
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH 249 Avtar Chand and others State of Punjab and others Versus CRM-M-59873-2024 Decided on : 07.01.2025 . . . Petitioner(s) . . . Respondent(s) CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY VASHISTH PRESENT: Mr. R.D. Rattewal, Advocate for the petitioner(s). Mr. Rubal Pawar, AAG, Punjab Mr. Deepak Chaudhary, Advocate for respondents No.2 & 3. **** SANJAY VASHISTH , J. (Oral) 1. The present petition under Section 482 Cr.P.C., has been filed
Facts
by the petitioners, for quashing of FIR No. 82, dated 15.08.2023 (Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 323, 452, 427, 34 of IPC, and Sections 120-B & 201 of IPC (added later on vide DDR No.16, dated 25.09.2024), registered at Police Station Bilga, District Jalandhar, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, on the basis of compromise/affidavits dated 21.10.2024 (Annexures P-2 & P-3). 2. Vide order dated 29.11.2024, the affected parties were directed to appear before the learned trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate, for getting their respective statements recorded with regard to the compromise. The trial Court/Illaqa Magistrate was to submit a report in this regard giving certain details as enumerated in the said order. 3. Pursuant to the order dated 29.11.2024, passed by this Court, JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 2 - the parties have appeared before learned Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Phillaur, and as per report dated 24.12.2024, submitted to this Court, both the parties have got recorded their respective statements in Court. The operative part of the report received from learned Court below is as under:- “ After having considered the statements of the parties i.e. statements of accused persons namely, Avtar Chand, Jagtar, Gurwinder Singh and Anarjit, complainant Paramjit Kumar, victim/aggrieved Loveraj and Investigating Officer ASI Dalwara Singh no.258/Jalandhar (Rural), P.S. Bilga, District Jalandhar, the report in the prescribed format is as under:- Name of the report Court. Mukesh Kumar Singla, Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Phillaur FIR No. 82 Dated Police Station Sections 15.08.2023 Bilga, District Jalandhar, Rural 323, 452, 427, 34 IPC (120-B and 201 IPC added later on vide DDR no.16 dated 25.09.2024) Paramjit Kumar (Complainant) Loveraj (Injured/victim) 16.12.2024 Yes Yes 1. Names of the complainant/victims(s)/ aggrieved person(s) 2. Dates on which the statement(s) of the complainant/victim(s)/a ggrieved persons(s) recorded. 3. Has the identity of the complainant/victim(s)/a ggrieved person(s) been verified? 4. Whether all the victims/all the aggrieved persons have compromised the matter? 5. Is there pressure, threat, or coercion upon the victim(s)/aggrieved person(s)/complainant? No 6. Names of the accused person(s). 7. Dates on which the statement(s) of the accused person(s) 1. Avtar Chand 2. Jagtar 3. Gurwinder Singh 4. Anarjit 16.12.2024 JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 3 - recorded. Yes 8. Whether all the accused have compromised the matter? If no, then the names of the accused who have compromised 9. Whether proclamation proceedings are pending against any accused? No 10. Has the police report No has been filed or not? 11. Notice of No accusation/charges have been framed or not? 12. Sections of statutes invoked in the matter 323, 452, 427, 34 IPC (120-B and 201 IPC added later on vide DDR no.16 dated 25.09.2024) 13. Whether the court is satisfied with the genuineness of the compromise? Yes ” 4.
Legal Reasoning
The Full Bench of this Court in the matter of Kulwinder Singh and others v. State of Punjab and another, 2007 (3) RCR (Criminal) 1052, has observed as under: “(28) To conclude, it can safely be said that there can never be any hard and fast category which can be prescribed to enable the Court to exercise its power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. The only principle that can be laid down is the one which has been incorporated in the Section itself, i.e., "to prevent abuse of the process of any Court" or "to secure the ends of justice”. In Mrs. Shakuntala Sawhney v. Mrs. Kaushalya (29) Sawhney and others, Hon'ble Krishna Iyer, J. aptly summoned up the essence of compromise in the following words: “The finest hour of justice arrives propitiously when parties, despite falling apart, bury the hatchet and weave a sense of fellowship of reunion.” (30) The power to do complete justice is the very essence of every judicial justice dispensation system. It cannot be diluted by distorted perceptions and is not a slave to anything, except to the caution and circumspection, the standards of which the Court sets before it, in exercise of such plenary and unfettered power inherently vested in it while donning the cloak of compassion to achieve the ends of justice. (31) No embargo, be in the shape of Section 320(9) of the Cr.P.C., or any other such curtailment, can whittle down the power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. (32) The compromise, in a modern society, is the sine qua non of harmony and orderly behaviour. It is the soul of justice and if the power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. is used to enhance such a compromise which, in turn, enhances the social amity and reduces friction, then it truly is "finest hour of justice". Disputes which have their genesis in a matrimonial discord, landlord-tenant matters, commercial transactions and other such matters can safely be dealt with by the Court by exercising its powers under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. in the event of a compromise, but this is not to say that the power is limited to such cases. There can never be any such rigid rule to prescribe the exercise of such power, especially in the absence of any premonitions to forecast and predict eventualities which the cause of justice may throw up during the course of a litigation. (33) The only inevitable conclusion from the above JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 5 - discussion is that there is no statutory bar under the Cr.P.C. which can affect the inherent power of this Court under Section 482. Further, the same cannot be limited to matrimonial cases alone and the Court has the wide power to quash the proceedings even in non-compoundable offences notwithstanding the bar under Section 320 of the Cr.P.C., in order to prevent the abuse of law and to secure the ends of justice. (34) The power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. is to be exercised Ex-Debitia Justitia to prevent an abuse of process of Court. There can neither be an exhaustive list nor the defined para-meters to enable a High Court to invoke or exercise its inherent powers. It will always depend upon the facts and circumstances of each case. The power under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. has no limits. However, the High Court will exercise it sparingly and with utmost care and caution. The exercise of power has to be with circumspection and restraint. The Court is a vital and an extra-ordinary effective instrument to maintain and control social order. The Courts play role of paramount importance in achieving peace, harmony and ever-lasting congeniality in society. Resolution of a dispute by way of a compromise between two warring groups, therefore, should attract the immediate and prompt attention of a Court which should endeavour to give full effect to the same unless such compromise is abhorrent to lawful composition of the society or would promote savagery.” 7. The legal principles as laid down for quashing of the criminal proceedings were also approved by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Gian Singh v. State of Punjab and another, (2012) 10 SCC 303. Furthermore, the broad principles for exercising the powers under Section 482 were summarized by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Parbatbhai Aahir @ Parbatbhai Bhimsinhbhai Karmur and others v. State of Gujarat and another, (2017) 9 SCC 641. 8. Further, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held in Ramgopal and another v. State of Madhya Pradesh, 2021 SCC Online SC 834, that the matters which can be categorized as personal in nature or in the matter in which the nature of injuries do not exhibit mental depravity or commission of an offence of such a serious nature that quashing of which would override public interest, the Court can quash the FIR in view of the settlement arrived JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 6 - at amongst the parties. The observation of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is extracted as under:- We thus sum-up and hold that as opposed to “19. Section 320 Cr.P.C. where the Court is squarely guided by the compromise between the parties in respect of offences ‘compoundable’ within the statutory framework, the extra- ordinary power enjoined upon a High Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. or vested in this Court under Article 142 of the Constitution, can be invoked beyond the metes and bounds of Section 320 Cr.P.C. Nonetheless, we reiterate that such powers of wide amplitude ought to be exercised carefully in the context of quashing criminal proceedings, bearing in mind: (i) Nature and effect of the offence on the conscious of the society; (ii) Seriousness of the injury, if any; (iii) Voluntary nature of compromise between the accused and the victim; & (iv) Conduct of the accused persons, prior to and after the occurrence of the purported offence and/or other relevant considerations.” 9. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and going through the material available on record, this Court finds that there appears to be substance in the submission of learned counsel for the petitioners that pendency of the present criminal litigation would be abuse of process of law since the chances of conviction of the petitioners are bleak in view of the compromise so effected between the private parties. 10. The report alongwith statements of the affected parties received from learned Court below would reveal that the aggrieved person has genuinely effected a compromise with the petitioners and he has no objection if the impugned FIR and consequential proceedings are quashed. 11. Keeping in view totality of the facts and circumstances of the case and taking into consideration the ratio of the judgments in the cases of Gian Singh (supra), Ramgopal (supra) and Kulwinder Singh (supra), this petition is accepted and FIR No. 82, dated 15.08.2023 (Annexure P-1), for the offences punishable under Sections 323, 452, 427, 34 of IPC, and Sections 120-B & 201 of IPC (added later on vide DDR No.16, dated JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 7 - 25.09.2024), registered at Police Station Bilga, District Jalandhar, and all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom are hereby quashed qua the petitioners, in view of compromise/affidavits dated 21.10.2024 (Annexures P-2 & P-3). 12.
Arguments
Learned counsel for the petitioners urged that due to intervention of the respectable and elderly people of the society, the matter has been resolved and private parties have effected a compromise/affidavits dated 21.10.2024 (Annexures P-2 & P-3). At present, there remains no dispute amongst the private parties. He further submits that in view of the compromise so effected between the private parties, pendency of the impugned FIR and consequential proceedings emanating therefrom would be sheer abuse of the process of law. 5. Learned State counsel as also learned counsel for respondents No.2 & 3, after going through the statements and the report received from learned Court below, very fairly admit that the private parties have resolved their dispute and effected a compromise and that they have no objection if the impugned FIR and all the consequential proceedings are quashed on the basis of the compromise. JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document CRM-M-59873-2024 - 4 - 6.
Decision
Petition stands disposed of. (SANJAY VASHISTH) JUDGE January 07, 2025 J.Ram Whether speaking/reasoned: Yes/No Whether Reportable: Yes/No JAWALA RAM 2025.01.09 19:35 I attest to the accuracy and authenticity of this document